52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #35 Claud Clarence Thompson Left his Brother's Home And Was Never Seen Again.

The solid lines indicate that the connection to the family is documented while
the dotted lines indicate that direct evidence has not yet been found to
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Claud had been drinking. Floyd, his older brother, told him that he could not live with Floyd and his family if he continued to drink. Claud left the home and was never heard from or seen again. Juanita, Floyd's daughter, told me this to me in 2001. 

No Story Too Small

Juanita's cousin, Nadine, wrote Uncle Claud Thompson left home when he was about 18 and has never been heard of since. Daddy tried to find him but never could even get a lead.

Another cousin, Marie, wrote The Thompson family had a brother named Claud Thompson that disappeared the year of WWII. He was staying with Floyd and Ora and left one morning and was never heard from again.

Floyd never stopped looking for Claud. Juanita said that asking his brother to leave upset him so much that he cried for two days. Nadine's father, Edgar Richard Thompson would look for Claud's name in telephone books each time that he visited a town outside his home in Erath County. 

According to his WWI draft registration, Claud Clarence Thompson was born on June 4, 1891. A farmer, he was tall and slender with dark hair and brown eyes. Claud was the son of Martha "Mattie" Hairston Chisum Thompson and John A. Thompson of Erath County, Texas. Claud's father died when he was a young boy. The family lived in the Bethel Community which appears to later become part of Morgan Mill. Claud can be found living with his mother on the 1900, 1910, and 1920 United State Census records of Erath County, Texas. After 1920, he has not been positively identified.

Juanita was a child when Claud disappeared so the time was probably the 1920s rather than the 1940s. Claud would have been in his late 20s or early 30s at the time of his disappearance. 

On the 1930 United States Census, there were over fifty Claud/Claude Thompsons born about 1891 in Texas. Many of these Claud/Claude Thompsons could be eliminated from my list of possibilities immediately, but some required research.

If Claud was transient, there may be no record at all. There were a few boarders or lodgers, living in Texas, listed on the 1930 census without families that could have been Claude. There were Claud Thompsons in California, Oklahoma and Denver that matched his age and place of birth.  A forty-two year old C. Thompson died in San Antonio on December 13, 1933 of tuberculosis. He was so sick when he was brought to the hospital that he was not able to give them much information.  

Additional Internet and library searches may turn up more clues, but there are so many possibilities!

Diana

© 2014

Sources

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.

Ancestry.com. Texas, Death Certificates, 1903–1982 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Thompson, Marie (Fort Worth, Texas) to "Dear Diana" [Diana Quinn]. Letter. 12 October 2000. Bryan-Quinn Genealogy Papers. Virginia Beach, Virginia.

United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.

Waugh, Nadine Thompson (Stephenville, Texas) to "Dear Diana" [Diana Quinn]. Letter. 26 September 2000. Bryan-Quinn Genealogy Papers. Virginia Beach, Virginia. 

Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: 1631; Page: 36A; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1241631.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Erath, Texas; Roll: T624_1550; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0020; FHL microfilm: 1375563.

Year: 1920; Census Place: Morgan Mill, Erath, Texas; Roll: T625_1801; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 17; Image: 453.